Velosulin BR News

TUESDAY, Nov. 22, 2016 – An estimated one in 250 Americans lands in the hospital emergency department each year because of a medication-related reaction or problem, a new federal study finds. Among adults 65 and older, the rate is about one in 100, the study authors said. Remarkably, the medicines causing the most trouble haven't changed in a decade, the researchers noted. Blood thinners, diabetes medicines and antibiotics top the list. These drugs accounted for 47 percent of emergency department visits for adverse drug events in 2013 and 2014, according to the analysis. Among older adults, blood thinners, diabetes medicines and opioid painkillers are implicated in nearly 60 percent of emergency department visits for adverse drug events. "The same drugs are causing the most problems," said study co-author Dr. Daniel Budnitz. The study doesn't tease out what went wrong. The reasons ... Read more

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 7, 2016 – Intensive management of type 2 diabetes can make a difference in how long and how well you live, even if you don't start until middle age, researchers report. People who were already at risk of type 2 diabetes complications were randomly selected to continue with their normal treatment or to be placed in an aggressive and multipronged treatment group. Two decades after the study began, the researchers found that people in the aggressive treatment group lived almost eight years longer. Not only that, they lived better – their risk of heart disease, kidney disease and blindness all dropped. The only complication that didn't seem to improve was nerve damage caused by diabetes. "Early, intensified intervention in type 2 diabetes patients with microalbuminuria with both target-driven pharmacological (medication) and behavioral actions increased life span. And, ... Read more

MONDAY, June 6, 2016 – Intensive treatment of blood sugar levels in some people with type 2 diabetes may cause serious complications, new research suggests. "In this study, we found that, particularly among older patients and patients with serious chronic conditions, intensive treatment nearly doubled the risk of severe hypoglycemia requiring medical attention, including hospitalization," said lead author Dr. Rozalina McCoy. She is an endocrinologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) is a serious potential complication of diabetes treatment. The researchers said it can worsen quality of life and has been linked with cardiovascular events, dementia and death. The researchers reviewed information from more than 31,500 American adults. All had stable and controlled type 2 diabetes. None was taking insulin. None had a prior history of severe ... Read more

TUESDAY, April 5, 2016 – Americans with diabetes who rely on insulin to keep their blood sugar levels in check are facing sticker shock: A new study finds the price of insulin has tripled in only 10 years. Moreover, since 2010, per-person spending on insulin in the United States was more than spending on all other diabetes drugs, the study found. "The cost of insulin has risen rapidly over the last few years," said study senior author Philip Clarke, a professor of health economics at the University of Melbourne in Australia. Clarke added there should be an assessment to see whether this price hike is justifiable in terms of improved clinical outcomes. One reason for the price climb, he said, is a switch from human insulins to analog insulins, which cost more but may offer additional benefits. Also, doctors are more apt to prescribe insulin for people with type 2 diabetes now, Clarke ... Read more

TUESDAY, Dec. 1, 2015 – In a sign that Americans may finally be turning the corner in the fight against diabetes – and possibly obesity – federal health statistics released Tuesday show that the number of new cases of diabetes has dropped for the first time in decades. The decline wasn't sudden or dramatic. But, the number of new diabetes cases went from 1.7 million in 2009 to 1.4 million in 2014, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "It seems pretty clear that incidence rates have now actually started to drop. Initially it was a little surprising because I had become so used to seeing increases everywhere we looked," CDC researcher Edward Gregg told The New York Times. The proportion of Americans with diabetes is still twice what it was in the early 1990s. And not every racial group has made strides against the blood sugar disease, which is often ... Read more

THURSDAY, Oct. 29, 2015 – When it comes to treating seniors with diabetes, new research suggests that doctors often don't cut back on medications, even when treatment goals are surpassed. The study found that when people had potentially dangerous low blood sugar levels, just 27 percent had their medicines decreased. And when blood pressure treatments lowered blood pressure levels too much, just 19 percent saw a reduction in their medications. "As people get older, the risks of overtreating become greater, and the benefits become shorter. We have to start emphasizing that more isn't always better," said study author Dr. Jeremy Sussman, an assistant professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and a primary care doctor at the Ann Arbor VA System. The findings were published online Oct. 26 in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. Practice guidelines generally ... Read more

TUESDAY, Sept. 15, 2015 – Keeping blood sugar levels in check may have a protective effect against dementia in people who have type 2 diabetes, new Swedish research suggests. "The positive association between [average blood sugar levels] and risk of dementia in fairly young patients with type 2 diabetes indicates a potential for prevention of dementia with improved blood sugar control," study author Dr. Aidin Rawshani, from the National Diabetes Register and Institute of Medicine in Gothenburg, Sweden, and colleagues wrote. However, the study wasn't able to definitively prove a cause-and-effect relationship between blood sugar levels and dementia; it was only able to show an association between these factors. The study included almost 350,000 people with type 2 diabetes. They were all registered in the Swedish National Diabetes Registry between January 2004 and December 2012. They had ... Read more

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 19, 2015 – People with type 1 diabetes who use insulin pumps seem to have a much lower risk of dying from heart disease or stroke prematurely than those who rely on multiple daily injections of insulin, new research suggests. "As done in Sweden at the time of this study, insulin pump treatment almost halved cardiovascular mortality," said study author Dr. Isabelle Steineck, from Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark. The researchers found a 45 percent lower risk of dying from heart disease early for insulin pump users. And the risk of dying early from heart disease or stroke was 42 percent lower for insulin pump users, while the risk of all-cause death was 27 percent lower during the seven-year study period. Because this was only an observational study, the authors can't say for sure that insulin pumps lowered death risk during the study, although they did find a ... Read more

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 5, 2015 – Personalized blood sugar self-monitoring benefits people with type 2 diabetes even if they're not taking insulin, a new small study shows. Some experts have questioned the value of self-monitoring in this group, and many insurers – including Medicare – limit the reimbursement of blood sugar (glucose) testing strips to one a day for people with type 2 diabetes. This study included 11 people with type 2 diabetes who worked with the researchers to create personalized, structured self-monitoring blood glucose schedules. In most cases, self-monitoring twice a day was the most helpful in providing meaningful information about blood sugar levels. However, there was room for individualization based on a patient's type of lifestyle and needs. For example, a patient might check their blood sugar twice a day three days a week instead of once a day seven days a week, ... Read more

MONDAY, July 27, 2015 – High blood sugar associated with prediabetes may increase the risk for Alzheimer's disease, a new study suggests. Researchers found that insulin resistance – higher-than-normal levels of blood sugar that often precede type 2 diabetes – was related to poorer performance on memory tests taken by late-middle-age adults. "The findings are interesting because people with diabetes are at increased risk for developing Alzheimer's disease, but we are only now learning why they may be at increased risk," said lead researcher Barbara Bendlin, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The study results suggest that insulin resistance could increase the risk for Alzheimer's disease by altering the way the brain uses sugar (glucose), which is its primary fuel, she said. However, "by altering insulin resistance in midlife, it may be possible ... Read more

WEDNESDAY, July 8, 2015 – Higher cost is one reason it is difficult for many parents of children with type 1 diabetes to provide their youngsters with a healthy diet, a small study finds. The study included 23 families in northeastern Kansas and western Missouri with children between the ages of 1 and 6 who had been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at least six months earlier and were on an intensive insulin regimen. Patients with type 1 diabetes often need to change their eating habits, but many children with the disease do not have healthy diets, according to the authors of the study published July 8 in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior. The researchers compared the lowest non-sale prices for 164 food items on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Thrifty Food Plan (R-TFP) and a healthier version of the plan (H-TFP). The results showed that a healthier market basket costs ... Read more

WEDNESDAY, July 1, 2015 – In a small study of obese patients, weight-loss surgery was better at keeping type 2 diabetes at bay than diet and exercise alone, researchers report. In fact, three years after weight-loss surgery, more than two-thirds of those who had a procedure called Roux-en-Y gastric bypass to shrink their stomach didn't need any diabetes medications. And one-third of the people who chose a procedure called adjustable gastric banding no longer needed diabetes medications three years after surgery, the study found. "Surgical treatments show promise for durable, longer-term, type 2 diabetes control in people with obesity," said lead researcher Dr. Anita Courcoulas, a professor of surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. The report was published July 1 online in JAMA Surgery. The researchers recruited 61 obese patients with type 2 diabetes for the study. They ... Read more

TUESDAY, June 9, 2015 – Researchers are launching a clinical trial to see if a vaccine approved long ago to prevent tuberculosis may also hold promise as a treatment for type 1 diabetes. The proposed five-year study is designed to investigate whether repeated injections of the tuberculosis vaccine bacille Calmette-Guerin (or BCG vaccine) can quiet the immune system attack that causes type 1 diabetes and improve blood sugar levels in people with long-standing diabetes. "BCG is showing so much promise in worldwide trials [for conditions such as multiple sclerosis]," said study author Dr. Denise Faustman, director of the immunobiology laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. While some may hold out hope that BCG will reverse type 1 diabetes in people, findings from Faustman's earlier – albeit smaller – human trial suggest the effects are likely to be far more subtle. "The ... Read more

WEDNESDAY, June 3, 2015 – Strictly controlling blood sugar levels appears to keep people with type 2 diabetes from developing heart problems, a new study finds. Tight control of blood sugar reduces the odds of heart attack, stroke, heart failure or amputation by about 17 percent, according to the study. But controlling blood sugar alone won't prevent deaths from heart disease or other causes. For that, lowering blood pressure and cholesterol are also needed, the researchers suggested. "In addition to regular exercise, a good diet and not smoking, people with diabetes can dramatically reduce their risk of strokes and heart attacks by taking a statin, keeping their blood pressure under control and getting their average blood sugar at least to moderate control with an A1C of about 8," said lead researcher Dr. Rodney Hayward. He is a senior research scientist at the VA Center for Clinical ... Read more